Love Beetroot’s #DontSkipABeet Event (With Recipes by Dan Doherty)

There are so many ‘superfoods’ out there. Most of them are either unpronounceable or crazy expensive…or both. But there are actually loads of ‘normal’ foods that are basically superfoods in their own right. I say ‘normal’ foods, meaning that they’re things you could easily buy from your local supermarket without having to take out a mortgage, and one of those foods is beetroot. Yep, you red that correctly – beetroot is an awesome food!

This delicious vegetable is full of nutrients – it’s high in calcium, iron and vitamins! It also tastes a lot better than kale, let’s be honest.

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A few weeks ago I was invited to London to attend an event at the award-winning cookery school, Cactus Kitchens, hosted by Love Beetroot. The event was held to make us aware of just how versatile beetroot is as an ingredient and how easy it is to make delicious healthy recipes using it, and it certainly did the job because everything I tasted on that day was delicious!

The event involved a cooking workshop making recipes created by the fabulous Chef Director at Duck and Waffle, Dan Doherty. Needless to say, as much as I was excited, I was also a little nervous because I’d never done anything like this before.

When we arrived at the venue we all made our way into the kitchen to get started, and I was astounded at how amazing the kitchen was! We each had our own perfect little kitchen work stations, just like in Bake Off!!

The first recipe Dan showed us was his ‘Valentine’s (be my) baby beetroot tarte tatin, honey & thyme, cheddar pastry’. It was a huge relief that the fab people at Love Beetroot had gone out of their way to get me some gluten-free puff pastry to work with for this so I was able to join in and attempt my own version of Dan’s delicious dish just like everyone else!

Although my gluten-free pastry didn’t quite hold as well as I would’ve liked while rolling it out (because that’s just what gluten-free pastry is like), it turned out brilliantly! And it tasted sooooo good!

Dan then showed us how to make his ‘Beet-a-ganouch, sweet chilli beetroot, yogurt, toasted pine nuts’. We got into pairs to make this and I was with the lovely Jessy from Popcorn and Pyjamas. It went really well and was thankfully just as easy as Dan had made it seem – our dish looked fab!

The recipes for both dishes made at this event are available at the end of this blog post by the way.

Don’t Skip A Beet is a fantastic campaign by Love Beetroot to challenge people to be more creative with their food, and the fact that Love Beetroot provide pre-prepared beetroots makes them super easy to use in any dish (whether sweet or savoury). They’ve got some delicious flavoured packaged beetroots too, which makes it even more exciting!

The crazy thing is that I’m definitely the kind of person who tends to have the same meals most weeks, but the Don’t Skip A Beet campaign has opened my eyes to using beetroot in new ways and I’ve even been trying it out in cakes! It’s definitely encouraged me to be more experimental with new foods.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

On a gas hob, blacken the skins of the aubergine until burnt. It’s best to skewer it so you can hold at a safe distance.

When all blackened, place into a roasting tray and put in the oven for 10 minutes to soften. (If you don’t have a glass-top gas hob it’s fine to skip the blackening stage and just roast the aubergine).

When ready, split open and scoop out the flesh, and roughly chop so it’s broken down.

In a food processor, add the beetroot, tahini, toasted cumin, thyme leaves and garlic and blitz until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Take out and into a bowl, add the aubergine and stir through.

In a dry frying pan, toast raw pine nuts until golden.

Serve the beetroot and aubergine mix in a bowl, and add a good spoon of yogurt on top.

Sprinkle over the pine nuts and coriander leaves to finish.

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Thank you so much to Dan Doherty and the lovely people at Love Beetroot and their PR company for inviting me to be part of this event, I had a great time and learnt loads about how to make deliciously tasty beetroot dishes!

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About the author

Natalie is a fitness addict, health enthusiast and gluten intolerant foodie who loves sharing her knowledge and recipes with everyone. A firm believer of everything in moderation, she writes about a sustainable healthy lifestyle without fad diets or ‘get fit quick’ schemes and promotes the importance of looking after both mind and body.